From building the refinery of the future to protecting cannabis growers with connected security systems, solution providers are continuing to carve out their own space in the Internet of Things.

Integration and management of IoT solutions remains a challenge for customers, which means that solution providers still have an important role to play. Vendors of all kinds also find a need for IoT partners as part of their go-to-market efforts.

For solution providers, the field is wide open when it comes to IoT applications, which range from oft-cited examples like predictive maintenance and asset tracking to lesser-known use cases like connected picking operations and one-button service ticketing.

The solution providers selected for this year's IoT Innovators Awards represent companies that have begun figuring out IoT and making it an important part of their business. Take a look at CRN's 30 IoT innovators for this year in the following slides.